Operation: SUNSHINE
{|style="width:100%; color:#FFF;" |valign="top" style="padding:10px;" class="black"| In the wake of Operation: VORAUSSICHT, dozens of illegal programs, projects, and operations conducted by the before, during, and after the came to light. While initially the findings of Codename: SHOGUN's investigation remained tightly under wraps, the secrets uncovered nevertheless could not stay hidden forever. When details from VORAUSSICHT leaked from the investigation, a media panic, "Spartangate", ensued. Public confidence in the defense force and military morale plummeted to levels not seen since the worst days of the , as news of ONI's excesses filtered out into the public record. The true depths of ONI's depravity, long hidden by the agency's famous secrecy, became commonly known, with everything from rogue supersoldier programs to the endangerment of entire colonies leaking. Before this disastrous leak of information, however, Section Zero, the investigative branch of the Office of Naval Intelligence, approved limited measures to limit the damage that could be done to it's own agency. After the investigator known as Codename: RAINFALL hunted down the conspirators behind the complex Operation: BLUE NIGHTS, Section Zero discovered that they themselves had harbored corruption unknowingly. Codename: EGOR, the premier trigger-man for the Field Investigation Team, was captured during VORAUSSICHT's final raid on the BLUE NIGHTS headquarters and rendered into Section Zero custody. Put in the awkward position of detaining a top level agent who had been given conflicting orders---and whose skill-set was to valuable to lose---and well aware of the loss of credibility Section Zero would sustain if it was revealed how thoroughly their own ranks had been compromised, the Deputy-Director of Operations, Codename: OLYCINDUS, arranged for EGOR to be hidden from prying eyes. Shortly after EGOR was transferred to a prisoner holding area on the UNSC Sophocles, the Section Zero ex-filtration specialist Codename: SUBMARINE was contacted to make EGOR disappear. Faced with the challenging task of hiding a operator who, technically, was not supposed to exist, and pressured by a rapidly diminishing timetable before civilian investigators began working on VORAUSSICHT, SUBMARINE executed a complicated scheme to hide EGOR in plain sight. Hoping to both successfully keep EGOR's embarrassing existence hidden and gather information on the newly formed , who had been resistant to infiltration by Section Zero agents, EGOR was placed aboard the and disguised as a . This deception would last long enough for the danger of EGOR being exposed by civilians auditing Section Zero to pass, and give Section Zero valuable insight into the inner workings of Spartan Branch, which future agents would use to successfully infiltrate long term. However, while it did successfully shake all suspicion within ONI away from EGOR---who was quietly put back to work, while carefully monitored by Section Zero officials to prevent his abilities from being misused again---the operation had the unwanted effect of making EGOR into a priority target for Spartan branch, who would on a number of occasions launch missions to re-capture the escaped SPARTAN-II and determine what exactly Section Zero's purpose had been. Operational Correspondence Related Articles Internal *Leonid-144 *Operation: BLUE NIGHTS *ONI Section Zero *Operation: VORAUSSICHT *''Pursuit'' *''Introductions'' *Leonidan Logs *The Leonidans External * * * * *